How To Transfer Files Between The Galaxy Tab and a USB Drive, SD Card, or Camera

By default, users can’t plug in a USB flash drive or SD card to transfer files on the go. Samsung offers a solution to this problem with the Galaxy Tab USB and SD Connection Kit. These dongles make transferring files pretty easy if you can figure out where that happens. The Galaxy Tab isn’t great at making the next steps obvious.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 slates are notable for their slim, iPad-esque profiles. They’re also notable for having only one port: a 30-pin connector. By default, users can’t plug in a USB flash drive or SD card to transfer files on the go. Samsung offers a solution to this problem with the Galaxy Tab USB and SD Connection Kit.

These dongles make transferring files between the Tab and a drive or memory card pretty easy if you can figure out where that happens. A notification pops up in the tray, yet tapping it doesn’t do anything.

Don’t worry if you encounter this. The Galaxy Tab isn’t great at making the next steps obvious, so I’m here to help.

Transferring Files Between the Galaxy Tab and USB Drive / SD Card

Step One: Insert the USB drive or SD card into the adapter, then plug that into the Galaxy Tab’s port. Once the Tab recognizes the drive or card, an indicator will pop up in the Notification Tray.

Step Three: If the app opens into the Root folder, scroll the folder list on the left side of the screen until you find the Storages folder. Tap to expand it, then tap to expand the usb folder inside, then expand the sda folder inside that.

The sda folder is where the files on your USB or SD card live, not a new folder on the drive.

The app may open into the correct folder upon launch. If you’re already in the My Files app when you plug in the adapter the correct folder will open automatically.

Step Four: To copy or move files or folders to the Tab, tap the box to the left of the file name to select it. This will bring up editing options in the upper right corner.

The two pages icon is for Copy, the scissors are for Cut, and the trashbin is for Delete. In the dropdown menu on the far right you’ll find Rename and Details.

Tap on the Copy or Cut icon after you’re finished selecting. The icons in the upper right corner will change to a clipboard icon. This is the Paste command.

Step Five: Navigate to the folder on the Galaxy Tab (under Root) where you want to copy or move the file/folder. Tap on it to open, then tap the Paste icon. Your file is now in the new folder.

Note: A quirk of many Android file apps is that, unlike a computer, the clipboard forgets what it’s holding if you do some other command before pasting. Example: if you select another file or create a folder. If this happens just navigate back to the Storages folder and start over. For this reason, I usually Copy instead of Cut, then delete the files I don’t need on the drive later.

Step Six: To copy or move files from the Tab to the USB Drive or SD card, repeat the steps above but in reverse.

Step Seven: Once you’re done, click the USB icon in the Notification area. It will now say “Click here to remove drive”. Tap that and the folders will disappear from the My Files manager. You can now unplug the drive from the Tab’s’ port.

Pro Tip: You can connect a camera to the Tab without having to take the SD card out as long as the camera has a USB connection. Just plug the USB cable into the USB Adapter dongle. The Tab will simply recognize it as a drive and you can copy images to a folder on the slate quickly.

FYI when you plug in either adapter into the galaxy TAB as in TABLET not slate, slate seems to be a MSFT term (i have the 10.1) it AUTOMATICALLY opens the directory. You dont need to search for it, unless you close out and navigate enough that a long press on the home button no longer lists that active process. And yes the adapters ARE compatible with the 7.0 Plus tab (as says the instruction book that came with the adapter set), just not the original. My 7.0 original is rooted and has custom firmware and no matter how much ive tried, even changing some files around with the Plus’ files, the coding just isnt there. Still not sure however why Sammy didnt just put a MicroSD slot in the 10.1??… Apparently they were trying to pull a crApple.

I’ve just bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus Wi-Fi GT-P6210 and the Galaxy Tab USB and SD Connection Kit and tested it with a 32GB USB and it worked fine. It does not open immediately, I have to go to MyFiles and both my SD card and my 32GB USB are found under extStorages. No changes have been made to my firmware.

That was VERY helpful. Excellent explanation that helped this Galaxy Tablet 10.1 enthusiast greatly! All works well and I think the Galaxy Tablet 10.1 is fantastic. It does everything I want it to do and exceeds my expectations! Much better than the Ipad, much cheaper and free to download applications from anywhere we want! :-)

Thanks much! I purchased a Samsung USB adapter for my Note phone and could not figure out out to find the files on the USB drive. Your instructions for the Tab enabled me to locate the files on the USB Drive when I connected it to my phone. Great!

Hello sir I have buy a USB cable connector with my galaxy tab 620, it work fine when I connect a USB pen drive, but it shows a notification of high power USB connected when I connect my reliance net connector dongle so sir what I have to do to use my reliance dongle with the tablet is there any other procedure to connect

thanks for the usful info about transfering from sd card to tab. however i cannot transfer the other way. ie. from tab to external sd card using the usb adapter. i do not get an option to paste to any file. any advice please.

I have a galaxy tab 7.7 as well the s2 phone. i have the OTG cable for connecting my flash drives. 4GB flash works fine with both devices , how ever any thing higher like the 8 GB flash drive when connected i get this” High power USB device is connected and it wont work. Can you advise me as to how to fix this. Thanks. AG

It certainly works very well on the P6800 7.7 inches. Just plug the USB key with the adapter. Very smooth. What is a pity is that you cannot connect the tab to a Mac by the provided cable and “see” it like in a PC. And Kies air is a nightmare.

I use a similar adapter and it works fine with my Samsung Tab 2 10.1 with pendrives and with my USB set of keyboard + mouse (in my case, the mouse pointer is very small). If you use a USB keyboard I would recommend “External Keyboard Helper Pro” an app that automatically asks if you want to change the default keyboard when the external one is connected. There are also other similar apps.

Great instructions with clear easy to understand visual steps. I’ve only just started playing around with the Galaxy tab and while I figured out how to get data from the SD card onto the tab by dragging and dropping in the file folder, this only “moved” the file, leaving the SD card empty and I couldn’t work out how to copy from one folder to another.

Thanks of your complete informations. it is very helpful for myself. but I have a problem to connecting my tablet to my computer. My computer doesn’t recognize my tablet and needs USB drive and I couldn’t get it. BY the way many thanks of your kind attentions. MY COMPUTER IS PENTIUM 4 WINDOWS XP 3 And my Tablet is GALAXY S2 .7 PLUS

Hi KT, Thanks for your Info. I bought the kit. The SD Card work perfectly wel The USB brings up the files for a moment and then its all gone. I cannot find the USB anyware in any directory I am using a Galaxy Tab 10.1 The USB is fornmatted to Fat 32 and only 2gb On the Settingsbar I get the message saying that the USB device was unexpectedly removed. Wel it was not. It is stil in the Tablet. Can you pleaase advise. Neal

I know this is a late reply to all this but I have just tried to move the files from my USB to my device. For some reason I can copy them with no problem but when I go to paste them in the folder on the tablet there is no paste option. Why would that be?

Thank you Thank you Thank you! I have been struggling for weeks trying to figure this out on my own. Finally I took my husband’s advice and Googled the problem and connected to your link and now I have successfully unloaded all my photos from my Nikon camera using the USB. Hopefully I will be able to resolve my next problem which is getting the Galaxy and the Nikon to discover each other so I can upload wirelessly.

What do you do when there is no root folder? When inserting the 4 in 1 connector into my galaxy note 10.1 a red light blinks and as it blinks it disconnects then connects repeatedly. When I try to insert the sdcard, it blinks green but I can’t see the files. Do you know what is happening?

Hi, I am still trying to deal with the problem of a camera with SD card, and a Samsung S tablet which the seller assured me could be used with a USB hub. When travelling, I have to borrow a laptop to transfer photos. Will the Galaxy connection kit solve my problem?

Someone HELP! I use this adapter and process to upload photos from my canon d30 camera to my galaxy s tab and it works great. However… none of the videos on my camera will upload. They aren’t even recognized in the uploader. Is this a compatibility issues or app issue? Thanx